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Territories in 1997, but we are not concerned
with that situation in this paper.
5. In the face of two such disagreeable options,
further thought has been given to the possibility
La future
that the Chinese Government might recognise that
(a) Without a continuing assured income
(b)
(c)
(a)
of foreign exchange from Hong Kong
plans for economic rehabilitation of
China itself might be jeopardised;
unless they show some sign that they
will not interfere in any way pre-1997,
confidence in the Colony may well start
ebbing by the mid-70s, thus prejudicing
the Chinese earnings of foreign
exchange before economic rehabilitation
has got under way;
in their own hands Hong Kong is most
unlikely to remain the economic power
house which it is under present British
rule;
even the period up till 1997 might be
insufficiently long for them to
accomplish their economic rehabilitation
and that it was therefore in their
interest to prolong beyond that date
our tenure of the New Territories and
also of Hong Kong.
It is inconceivable that a Government over which
Mao Tse-tung presides, even nominally, could take
such a line, but we should not totally exclude
from our calculations the possibility that a more
pragmatic successor Government might do so.
would, however, expect a price in return.
They
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3.
16.